Home Loan FinTech Neat Capital Wraps Series B-1

Colorado FinTech Neat Capital has wrapped a Series B-1 funding round with Forecast Labs, a New York City-based venture group and division of Comcast.

According to a press release Tuesday (April 19), Neat Capital has already raised more than $40 million, although the price tag for the latest round was not released. The Boulder-based company said it will use the funding to accelerate Neat Loans, its consumer home-lending business.

Neat Loans lets consumers compete with cash buyers with its “fully underwritten Platinum Approval” and by backing $50,000 of a homebuyer’s money. The company also uses a proprietary home financing platform to speed up the process, especially for people with complicated financial situations, letting clients close in just two weeks.

“The traditional mortgage pre-approval is dead, and it’s time to bury it,” said Luke Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Neat Capital. “Over the past year, we’ve witnessed the housing market go off the rails, leaving many perfectly qualified people to miss out on their dream homes because they had to compete in wildly aggressive real estate markets.”

The company said the timing of the investment coincides with the spring and summer homebuying season, a busy and competitive period in the mortgage sector. With housing inventory constrained, Neat Capital hopes prospective buyers will reach out to find a new way to approach bidding on their new home.

As PYMNTS reported earlier this week, investor impact on the housing market and local neighborhoods has become a nationwide issue as home prices reach monumental highs. Families hoping to purchase a home have said it’s difficult to compete with big companies that can pay in cash.

Read more: Homeowner Groups Rallying Support to Keep Renters Out

This phenomenon has manifested in a trend of homeowner associations taking steps to prevent investors from buying up homes just to rent them out. However, housing analysts have said that the move to keep out investors could harm renters who are already having a tough time finding suitable places to live.

“There’s a pretty deep and pervasive social stigma against renters,” Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told The Wall Street Journal.